On 4 July 2019, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) requested authorisation to initiate an investigation into crimes within the Court’s jurisdiction in which at least one element occurred on the territory of Bangladesh – a State Party to the Rome Statute (the treaty that established the ICC) – and within the context of the 2016 and 2017 waves of violence in Rakhine State on the territory of Myanmar, as well as any other crimes which are sufficiently linked to these events in the period since 9 October 2016 and continuing.
On 14 November 2019, the ICC Judges granted the request to start the investigation in the Situation in Bangladesh/Myanmar. In reaching this Decision, the Judges also took into account the victims’ representations introduced on behalf of more than half a million Rohingya, who all supported the opening of the investigation.